Shooting a gun places a premium on accurate direction of a bullet to a target. Although most guns have sights, many avid shooters mount a scope onto the gun in order to obtain better accuracy at longer distances. A shooter may sight in a gun with a scope accurately at a given distance. Once the gun is sighted-in, however, accuracy will be reduced if the distance between the shooter and the target changes, compared to the sighted-in distance. This loss of accuracy is because the flight of a bullet follows a curve, with the maximum height somewhere between the gun and target, depending on shooting distance. The shooter will need to adjust the scope up or down in relation to the barrel of the gun to hit a target at varying distances. There is therefore a need for a mounting apparatus that allows the shooter to easily adjust from one distance to other distances.
Adjustable sighting systems are known in the archery industry. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,475,485 by the inventors of the present application, discloses a yardage tape apparatus wherein a set-up tape and dial is used to sight in an archery bow. From the sight in process, a yardage tape is determined. The identified yardage tape is then applied to the dial and used in subsequent use in shooting the archery bow. However, there are substantial differences between the requirements for accurately shooting an archery bow and a gun. One such difference is the target distance, wherein archery generally consists of shooting at closer targets than guns. Another difference is the trajectory of the arrow versus a bullet, wherein the trajectory of a bullet is a flatter line. Another difference is that adjustment of a sight has a greater impact on accuracy of a bullet based in part upon the difference in distance and trajectory. Therefore, there is a need for a mounting apparatus that provides finer adjustment and greater accuracy for guns.
Other changing external factors also affect the accuracy of a previously sighted-in gun with scope. Some external factors that can affect bullet accuracy include but are not limited to the bullet shape, weight and velocity, altitude, humidity, temperature, wind and atmospheric pressure to name a few. Avid shooters may use tables, equations and/or software to appropriately consider all of these factors in order to obtain the adjustments necessary for accuracy under the current shooting conditions. However, correctly adjusting for the multitude of factors that can affect bullet accuracy is complex, time consuming and can result in the desired target getting away. Therefore, there is a need for an affordable mounting apparatus that allows a shooter to easily make adjustments based upon changes in ammunition or environmental factors.
Further, shooting equipment, such as scopes or shooting software, that can account for a significant number of the factors that affect shooting accuracy, can be costly. Although it may be desirable to be able to use one scope on multiple guns, switching the scope between guns can require sighting in the scope each time the scope is taken off and mounted again. Many shooters simply buy a scope for each gun, thereby adding expense. Therefore, there is a need for an affordable mounting apparatus that can be easily switched between guns while reducing the sight in process when the apparatus is switched between guns.